America is getting addicted to sports betting
March Madness has just ended, setting all-time viewership records. Baseball season is in full swing, with a revamped schedule, more interleague games and marquee matchups. The NBA and NHL playoffs begin April 20. And football fans can look forward to the NFL draft April 25 to 27.
This confluence of events on the sports calendar also means an explosion of online betting. Unfortunately, Americans can also expect an increase in debt, bankruptcies, and losses of jobs and homes.
The problems stem from the 2018 Supreme Court decision, Murphy v. NCAA, striking down a federal ban on sports gambling and letting the states set their own rules. Now 38 states and the District allow sports betting, spawning a proliferation of mobile betting apps and online sportsbooks — there are now more than 40 of them — representing a growing, multibillion-dollar industry. It’s also spawning a culture of addiction.
Betting on sports competitions is at least as old as the ancient Greeks. But, in the modern iteration, mobile betting apps have made gambling easier than ever: You can place bets effortlessly with a few taps from the comfort of your living room.
Even more pernicious has been the rapid growth of in-game micro-wagers — known as “prop bets” — on specific aspects of any game in real time, which incentivize more spontaneous and impulsive gambling. How many free throws will a basketball player make in the first quarter? Who will hit the first home run of a baseball game? You can place a bet on that.
Add to that the now-ubiquitous, celebrity-studded advertisements for sportsbooks during games.
Big league sports once tried to keep a distance from gambling, fearing that betting might sully the games. But after the Murphy decision, major league sports embraced gambling. Signing exclusive partnerships with the biggest sportsbooks, including FanDuel, DraftKings and Caesars became a new way to keep fans engaged while creating a lucrative revenue stream.
Legalization did bring sports gambling into the open, where it can be regulated. But the gaming industry has resisted virtually all proposals for regulation. Cash-strapped states, addicted to the new revenue and always reluctant to raise taxes to pay for services, have hesitated to rein in a growing industry. Congress has also shown little appetite.
Some reasonable regulations should be imposed immediately. One bill in Congress would restrict ads during live games and prohibit use of “bonus bets” and other sweeteners. Attempts to restrict advertising will run into free speech concerns, but a model might be the restrictions legally placed on cigarette ads, premised on protecting public health.
That bill would also require sportsbooks to conduct “affordability verification” checks on their customers. Limits could be considered on the number of bets allowed in a single 24hour period, or the amounts of each bet.
Sports and gambling are evermore intertwined. But there still might be time to put some sensible brakes on Americans’ dangerous, growing addiction to betting on sports.